Halo: Alternative Continuum
by NoNameForOldFish
Summary: Halo retold, with a few changes. For one, you've got two Spartan super-soldiers aboard the Pillar of Autumn!
1. Chapter 1

I lost the notes for Salvaging Rapture. Just assume that Big Brother kicked the squad's collective butts ^^.

Anywho, here's a new story. I'm sure that most Halo fans can tell where this is going.

*Warning* MASSIVE spoilers for the ending of Halo: Reach. Of course, I go a different way with it, but it's still pretty spoilerific.

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* * *

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**August 30, 2552**

It was finished.

The Covenant Cruiser menacing the last ship off of Reach had been destroyed. With the skies momentarily clear, the Pillar of Autumn prepared to cast off, ready to leave the last major fortress of humanity behind. Six, the last surviving member of Noble Team, was left on the docks, watching as the craft prepared to make a break for orbit.

That package. If it really was the key to humanity's salvation then all their sacrifices were not in vain. There was nothing left to do but take the Covenant invaders head on and kill as many as possible. Noble Six turned around, back to the Autumn, and began to walk away.

A Pelican dropship swooped in overhead and actually began to swoop in for a quick pick up. The airtight back door opened up. A member of the flight crew motioned for him to come aboard; Six's HUD identified him as a Lieutenant Frye.

"Get aboard!" the pilot's voice echoed through the Spartan's helmet.

"What are you doing, ma'am?" Six asked.

"Saving you, what does it look like? If you don't hurry up we're all going to die!"

Noble Six took a quick glance at the Pillar of Autumn. Could they even make it to the ship in time? They might as well risk it. Augmented Spartan reflexes allowed the super-soldier to both take the Kukri off of his fallen comrade and climb into the dropship in half the time it would take a standard human.

"We'll be cutting it kind of close." the pilot said. She closed the back hatch to prevent anyone from spilling out the back during acceleration. Both Six and Lieutenant Frye stumbled to the cockpit to observe the maneuver.

The pilot was taking the Pelican towards the kilometer-long cruiser at a speed and angle that would be considered reckless in even the most desperate combat situation imaginable. Her target was an aft hangar bay already filled to capacity with troopers and vehicles fleeing the abandoned planet.

"We're not going to make it!" Frye said.

"We'll make it." Six and the pilot both assured him in turn.

The Pelican skidded into the hangar just as the last of the disposable thrusters detached from the hull of the cruiser. Their antics clipped the paint of several warthogs and sent some marines scattering for cover.

A cheer broke out amongst the crew of the hanger, starting with the marines who were still picking themselves off the floor.

Noble Six, Captain Carol Rawley, and her flight crew had just become the last group of humans to escape the surface of Reach. There was reason to be thankful; reason to celebrate.

"Captain Keyes is going to want to know you're alive." Captain Rawley said.

"Yes, ma'am." Six said, and marched to the bridge at the nearest opportunity.

"Captain Keyes." Noble Six began. The entire system of Epsilon Eridani being a declared combat zone, saluting was discouraged despite being in an enclosed, secure ship.

"Lieutenant, my God, you made it." Keyes was inserting Halsey's package into a pedestal on the bridge of the ship. The repairs completed, the Autumn's AI construct appeared on top of the pedestal, a purplish network of hard light. It took the appearance of a woman strikingly similar to Doctor Halsey.

"That tickles."

Captain Keyes nodded. "Hello Cortana, your upgrades are complete."

Cortana seemed to stretch and flex as the upgrades booted up. She turned to Noble Six. "I suppose I have you to thank for this. Good kid. I suppose this package'll help with my processing power. There is some interesting data in here at the very least."

"We will be picking up one final asset in orbit. After that, we will make a random jump in accordance with Cole Protocol."

"Aye aye, Captain." Cortana said.

"Six, I need you to stay on guard. Be prepared for possible Covenant boarding actions." Keyes said.

"Yes, sir."

The Pillar of Autumn was nearly in orbit, now. The bridge windows played host to a scene of devastation as Covenant cruisers and assault carriers began the final sweep of the planet.

Jun was still down there, somewhere. Could he and Halsey possibly hope to survive for more than a couple days? Maybe they could return to Reach after the fighting was over and look for survivors.

Six settled in and awaited the operation to retrieve these orbital assets, whatever they may be.

* * *

I'm going for more of a beige, laconic prose this time. It is less influenced by writer's block!


	2. Chapter 2

These two don't talk very much in normal gameplay. I'm going to have to put Cortana in both their heads so as to foster conversation!

Also, I'm trying to make Six gender-neutral. Let's see how long that lasts.

* * *

Noble Six was there to meet the "orbital assets" in the docking bay. It took a great deal of pressure to get Cortana to reveal that these assets were, in fact, other Spartans who were fresh from a mission on Reach Station Gamma. According to her, the situation sounded bad over the comms. Six was to expect the worst.

Foe Hammer broke no less than four flight regulations in her dash to bring Noble Six aboard the Pillar of Autumn. The ship was undermanned to an inane degree, so punishment had been deferred. She off with the rest of the flight crews, on call and awaiting orders.

Noble Six and the pixilated, two-foot tall image of Cortana were the only people aside from the flight crew in the docking bay. The inbound Pelican was showing immense signs of battle damage. Six was surprised that it could still maneuver.

The unique silhouette of a Spartan II super soldier hopped out of the Pelican just as soon as the airtight back hatch opened. The Spartan visibly dented the thick metal floor plating as he landed.

This Spartan towered even over the augmented Six. He was wearing the standard S-II Mk V powered armor. It was a suit so strong that it would break unaugmented human bone through a mere twitch. Even Six's modified armor could not quite compete. What's more, he was carrying another gravely injured Spartan in his arms. Her armor was broken and had the unmistakable residue of needle fire around still-flowing wounds.

"I need to get to the Cyro Chambers." the still-standing Spartan said.

"Right this way. I'll introduce ya as we go." Cortana marked the location of the nearest cyro bay on the pair's HUDs.

"Six, this is MCPO Spartan John 117." Cortana explained over the ship's intercoms. "Chief, this is Lieutenant B312. Call sign: Noble Six. As for why you don't recognize him from the rest of the company… well, it's a long story."

"Halsey never told us about a second Spartan company." the S-II said.

"Yes… well, the truth is a little more… complicated. Halsey thinks that Colonel Ackerson has been up to no good. Perhaps the Lieutenant can explain in detail?"

"Negative, ma'am. It's classified." Six said.

"Ah, it figures." Cortana said before moving on to more pressing matters. "Chief, Linda's vitals are at zero. She's gone."

"Not yet." the Master Chief said. "If we get her to a cyro unit it will be possible to sustain her life until we can find proper medical facilities."

"This is a viable option." Six said.

Marines, navy personnel, and the odd refugee civilian moved aside as the Spartan procession marched down the halls, saying not another word to each other.

With the fallen Spartan tucked safely away, the two Spartans, last of their respective kinds, moved on to other pressing matters.

"Sir," the Master Chief saluted the shorter Noble Six. "I was unaware of any Spartan officers currently in the field."

"Master Chief, would you happen to know a Jorge-052?"

With his face still masked behind the Mk V. helmet; the Master Chief searched his memory. "No, sir. It has been so long since we were all together."

"I see." Six said. "Are you the only one left in your squad?"

The S-II nodded. "Yes. Aside from Linda, there was James, but he got spaced. I was about to go ask for a scan to see if we can't find him before we leave the system.

Cortana reappeared on a pedestal in the Cyro bay. "I'm two steps ahead of you. We've got nothing on the scans, just dust and echoes." she turned to Six. "Is there anyone you want us to look for?"

Six thought for a bit. Somewhere on the surface of Reach, Jun was waiting. They were already on the way out of the system. They couldn't possibly go retrieve him and his civilian charge. "No."

"Okay. Chief, you can head to the cyro bay just across the hall. Six, the Captain wants you to serve are the Autumn's new security officer for the duration of our journey."

"Very well." Six and the Chief went their separate ways. On his way to the bridge, Noble Six stopped by the nearest window.

Reach was burning. The largest Covenant fleet that Six had ever seen was about to burn the surface to glass in its entirety. Yet more ships were slipping into the system.

"Don't tell anyone this, but they're following us." Cortana said, the volume on the local intercom turned down to minimum.

"How many?" Six asked.

"We're the last ship out, so probably all of them." Cortana said. "Yeah, this is going to put my maneuvering skills to the test. Don't worry; I'll get you to Earth. Eventually."

The Battle of Reach ended with most of its population of 700,000 million dead. Had everything Six had done over the past month been for naught? That all depended on whether Halsey's "expansion pack" for this AI, Cortana, produced the kind of results that she had predicted.

* * *

When next we meet, we will finally get to the meat of the story.


	3. Chapter 3

Personal goings, on have delayed this chapter by about a week. Sorry 'bout that.

I will be giving Noble Six a name. It won't happen this chapter, but perhaps in the next. It'll be something as gender-neutral as possible. I haven't flubbed up on my "don't use his/hers for Noble Six" yet, have I?

* * *

Noble Six stayed on the Pillar of Autumn, serving as the new head of security. They were set to travel through slipspace for nearly a month before dropping out at a random destination. As such, the Pillar of Autumn was manned by a skeleton crew of essential personnel only; most of the 2,000+ passengers were put into cryo-storage to save on rations, power consumptions, and the mental health of the majority of the personnel.

No ship had ever been attacked in the middle of slipspace transit before. Obviously, Six's job was not to be on constant lookout for boarders. He was to remain vigilant and prepare the ship's marine contingent for action just as soon as they exited the black and white no scenery of slipspace travel and arrived back in the realm of the tangible.

It was September 19th, 2552 when the ship finally exited slipspace. Spartan B-312 moved to a forward window to get a glimpse of the star system that they had arrived in.

To Six's surprise, the Autumn was on the very edge of the galaxy. The Milky Way appeared as a tilted disk out beyond a large, pale gas giant and its many moons.

There was something else in orbit around the planet. At first Six mistook it for another moon. As the ship moved closer it quickly became apparent that it was not a moon at all. A rotating ring with the distinct, rocky outline of continents on its interior stood before them in open mockery of natural science!

Cortana's voice came in over the intercom. "Before you ask, no, that is not a natural formation. It's not Covenant, either, and it sure ain't one of ours."

Six nodded. She was probably having this same conversation with every officer on the ship.

"You sure seem to taking this in stride." Cortana said. This could only be directed at the Spartan.

"It's just another problem that needs to be solved, ma'am. Even so… we made a blind jump. Did we just happen to find this… ring world?"

Cortana did not respond at first; odd for an AI capable of thousands of calculations per zepto-second. She then toned down the speakers, a serviceable imitation of a human whisper. "Six, can you keep a secret?"

The S-III had not encountered many smart AIs during field operations. Auntie Dot, the squad's AI helper during the Reach campaign, had been a "dumb" AI, a mere imitation of human intelligence. This sudden secretive streak was unnerving the young Spartan. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, it's about the jump. It wasn't _quite_ as blind as I first insinuated. Y'see, I used data gathered from that expansion pack you escorted to us and combined it with coordinates gathered from another alien artifact that a group of Spartans dug up on…"

Now they had more problems in need of solving. This artifact no doubt belonged to the same species that built the ruins under Sword Base. Could this civilization still be around? If so, then they could make a powerful ally. Of course, if they proved hostile, they could hasten humanities extinction by months.

"Are we being pursued?" Six asked.

"I think we both know the answer to that. So, security officer, do you have a battle strategy?"

Six took a trusty Designated Marksman Rifle out of its holster. "I'll need some squads to repel the boarders."

"Squads under the command of Sergeants Johnson and Stacker are already on standby on your deck. More are being thawed out as we speak."

"They'll hit the lifeboat airlocks to get in. Can you vent the atmosphere of compromised sections?"

"Of course I can! Great minds think alike!" Cortana sounded rather content with herself.

"I don't suppose that we're going to try making another slipspace jump." Six said.

"Nope. Keyes wants us to land on the ring. Also, we'll be unthawing a friend of ours. The Captain wants you to meet him in cryo-stasis then escort him to the bridge. Do give our old friends a warm reception, will you?" Now, get moving!"

MCPO John-117 awoke into the middle of a firefight. No sooner had the cryobay technicians unthawed him was he forced to flee the chamber on a mad dash to the bridge. His escort, a technician named Thom, had been blown away trying to open a hatch. The Chief hadn't seen another soul since.

John's entire body itched, a side effect of extended stasis in heavy armor. It was a fair trade-off that he had grown accustomed to over the years; a minor irritation for complete combat readiness the moment that you exited the cryotube.

The Master Chief ran straight through the next door and was immediately set upon by a creature colloquially know to humans as an Elite. The Elite's battle dress indicated him as one of the lower ranks. Even so, he was nearly double the strength of an average human and more than a match for an augmented Spartan. With a single punch the Elite was able to stop John's momentum and send the one-ton Master Chief sliding backwards with little in the way of energy shielding remaining.

The Elite raised its plasma rifle and prepared to fire. The Chief's remaining shields would fail in seconds. After that, there was nothing left but easily bypassed plate armor.

Heavy, distinctly human footsteps were audible down the corridor. John doubted that any marine contingent could take the Elite in a fight. He could at least use the distraction to lash out. He never would have imagined seeing a fellow Spartan come sprinting down the hallway, a pair of knives in hand.

B-312 threw his standard combat knife into the Elite's back. The creature howled in pain while simultaneously bringing the plasma rifle to bear on this new foe. Plasma washed against Six's shields, but they refused to break.

The younger Spartan's second knife had a curved blade. With his extensive knowledge of every kind of weapon invented by humankind, the Master Chief was able to instantly identify it as a kukri. Six sliced all four mandibles off of the Elite with two vertical slices before toppling the alien and finishing it off with a burst from a long-obsolete UNSC rifle.

A pair of marines ran down the hall only after the fighting had stopped.

"Wow! You Spartans really live up to the hype! Three years of service and I don't think I've ever seen a squad take one of those down. We should keep you guys handy in case we ever run into some hunters."

Noble Six turned to the marines. "You two guard this corridor. If you risk being overwhelmed, withdraw behind a blast door. I am to escort the Master Chief to the bridge."

The marines nervously provided acknowledgement of the order. Six then turned to Spartan-117.

"Follow me, Master Chief."

"I'll need a weapon." John said.

"Very well," Six presented the S-II a magnum sidearm. "We can find ammo as we go. The bridge is 200 meters to forward. Let's move!"

Captain Keyes informed them that he was initiating Cole Protocol, article 2. All shipboard AI's were to be evacuated so as not to fall into Covenant hands. This included Cortana.

It came time for Cortana to pick a Spartan to be her escort. She seemed to hesitate for less than a second – a painfully long time for an AI. She eventually settled for the Master Chief in his Mjollnir Mk V armor.

"Sorry, Six." Cortana said once she was fully interfaced with the Chief's armor. "It was just a hunch, but I figured that this armor would have infrastructure similar to the Pillar of Autumn."

"No offence taken, ma'am. Let's just get you off the ship."

The pair made for the nearest lifeboat. They hugged either wall of the Autumn's close, tactical corridors, firing at whatever stood in their way.

They bailed out a dozen marine squads between the two of them. The marines cheered as the Spartans blew through the halls on their way to a secure exit.

"Chief, Six, wait up." Cortana said. "I'm getting a distress signal from an ONI spook one level above us. Apparently she managed to smuggle ONI's complete database off of Reach before Covenant could get a hold of it. She wants help either getting it off the ship or delete it."

The Spartans did not come to a complete stop. Instead, they inched forward, ever on the lookout for any Grunts unlucky enough to cross paths with the super-soldiers.

"An ONI officer? When did she board the-" Six began. A run-in with a cloaked Elite cut the speech in its tracks.

Six reflexively kicked out at the cloaked figure, no doubt on his way to the bridge to spy on the command crew. Six jumped back and allowed the Master Chief to lay into the alien with fire from his assault rifle.

Even while limping down the hall in a retreat, the Elite moved faster than any unaugmented human. It ducked through the nearest open door. Six sprinted after it in pursuit, and nearly received a plasma grenade to his helmet for the trouble.

"Chief, the nearest elevator is twenty meters behind us. If you two want to go after this archive, you need to move now."

"Only one of us needs to go there. Master Chief, I will handle the archive. You get Cortana safely off of this ship."

"Agreed." S-117 said.

"Shall we regroup on the ring, then?" Cortana asked.

"With a little luck, yes." Six said.

Luck, that was perhaps the only thing the two Spartans had in plentiful supply.

* * *

Readers of Halo: The Flood may remember a cloaked Elite who got his butt kicked by the Master Chief and a squad of marines attempting to board the Pillar of Autumn...

I may have a short chapter next, followed by a timeskip to the Truth and Reconcilliation.


	4. Chapter 4

Original Characters? In my alternate universe fan-fic? It's more likely than you think.

Bailey has a really important role in the whole 'alternate' part of the AU. If this makes it all the way to Halo 3, the exact nature of this role might get revealed.

* * *

The battle for the Pillar of Autumn had left this deck behind.

Being one of the first areas to come under attack, Cortana had sealed and vented nearly 80% of the corridors on this deck. Noble Six was forced to wind his way to the waypoint in the dark. All the while, plasma bombardment scorched the ship's outer hull.

Any lesser ship would have been destroyed by now. Noble Six still had numbers regarding ship durability drilled into his head from his time as a pilot. So long as the bridge remained, Halcyon-class Cruisers can carry on fighting even with every compartment depressurized. They were always the hardest ships to sink in Sabre simulations.

The waypoint was towards the aft of the ship, near the hangars. At least it would make for an easy escape, if there were any long swords or pelicans left after the main evacuation was done. Even Captain Keyes and the bridge crew should have evacuated by now. You do not want to be stuck on a starship when it makes a hard landing onto a planet. Landing on a ring world was probably no different as far as the dangers were concerned.

Why hadn't this ONI spook just gotten onto a lifeboat like the rest of the crew? There were even chances that you got instantly vaporized by the Covenant fleet quickly moving in on the ring. At least the enemy would have no way of getting this rumored ONI secrets database. Noble Six was already suspicious of this ONI official, and they hadn't even met yet!

The bodies started piling up as Six got closer to the target. Most were lower-tier Covenant races that attempted to board and got caught when the compartments got depressurized. Anyone wearing pressurized gear had already gone down to fight it out in the lower levels.

The waypoint marked a storage closet as the ultimate goal of this trek. The doors had been blown open, probably by a few wayward plasma grenades. Strangely enough, this seemed to be the only room on the deck with working power. Noble Six peeked into the room, receiving a magnum round to the helmet for the trouble.

"Stand down!" an older female voice ordered. "It's a Spartan!"

Six's shields prevented a nasty case of friendly fire. The Spartan got off with not so much as a scratch. The would-be assassin was a crouched and terrified midshipman in an orange jumpsuit.

"S-sorry!" the man said.

"If it's got horse hooves, it's Elite. If it's short, it's a Grunt or Kig-Yar. Otherwise, it's one of ours!"

It being uncouth to salute in a free-fire zone, Six simply nodded. "Ma'am."

The woman introduced herself as Lieutenant Commander Bailey, naval intelligence. Her face was covered by a helmet with a most angular design. Six assumed that it was some kind of prototype armor that may or may not have been available to Beta 3 Spartan squads back when they were still testing their Mjollnir gear.

"I am sorry for that, Spartan. We've been barricade in here for over an hour. My ODSTs are still as keen as usual. The newbies… however."

Bailey was not alone. In addition to the terrified midshipman, there were a half-dozen Orbital Drop Shock Troopers guarding the door, their faces concealed beneath polarized silver visors. They would only fire if they knew what the target was. If they were a little better, they'd be Spartans.

"It's no problem, Ma'am. I was told that I would be escorting a sizable ONI database off of the ship."

"Right," Bailey presented a small gray data disk no different than the storage device used to move Cortana about. "This is it. Sergeant Parker, you can take your men and do what you do best. The Lieutenant and I can work out an avenue of escape. I suppose the Hospital Corpsman here can accompany us, if he can catch up."

"That's a negative, ma'am." Parker said. "The helljumper tubes were just hit. If we want off this ship, we're going to have to fly off."

Six had been getting curious ever since Bailey first presented the data disc. The ONI database on Reach contained information on nearly every citizen on every colony. The Innies would have gotten double the support if people knew of the dirt naval intelligence had been collecting on them.

A single data disc could hold petabytes of information. Even so, the Reach database held fifty times that amount. Even smart AI's took time to shift through the information.

"If you don't mind me asking, where's the rest of the data?" Six asked.

"Deleted, and then burnt to ash. This disc contains a very specific sliver of the data that I copied off. It's the section on Spartans. You're in here. Dom-B312, right? If I wanted, I could look up some of the Spartan-Is on this ship, if there are any left. It's funny, though. I do remember hearing of another Spartan on here. John, was it?"

"MCPO Sierra-117 is tasked with escorting the shipboard AI onto this ring." Dom said. The S-III hadn't heard that name used in years, not since getting yanked out of Beta Company.

"I see. We really should be joining him, then. Getting you two back together is our best bet for continued survival. Who knows, we might even meet up with whoever built this ring. I do hope they side with us. Hell, what happens here might just turn the tide on this whole war."

Bailey requested that Six carry the package much like the Master Chief carried Cortana. She claimed that it'd be safer there, less likely to be scorched by plasma, or lost. Six didn't care, they only had twelve minutes to evacuate the Autumn before this whole plan came to a sudden stop regardless of ONI's plans.

Bailey hefted an SMG customized with a stock for greater accuracy. "Your file said something about being a pilot? There's one last Longsword in the hangar two decks down. Everybody else on the ship is dead or gone. If we want to live, I say we run this."

* * *

Lieutenant Commander Yuri Bailey, a woman so mysterious that she gets customized guns on a ship that wasn't even carrying SMGs! Hey, Chief is using them on the cover to the updated Halo: The Flood.

I just couldn't resist naming the lancer character Dom. As per gender neutrality, that's Dominic for guys. FemSix can be Dom... inura. Stop looking at me like that.

When next we meet: Saving the Captain. Chief and Six's first joint op. Some more scenanigans from Bailey, and the foundation of a new Spartan Team. The battle continues, after midterms.


	5. Chapter 5

Another fashionably late entry into Halo: Alternate Continuum.

I'm knee-deep in writing projects at any given time. Fan fiction has to take a bit of a backseat to original works. But now I'm back… from outer space. Without further ado:

* * *

"Night" on the ringworld seemed to occur when this system's star was obstructed by either the planet it orbited or by the ring itself. A dropship moving at top speed could easily pass the threshold between day and night before its occupants even knew to turn on the low-light vision modes on their snipers and helmets.

Dom B-312 and ONI commander Bailey hadn't had time to explore the construct. Most of the time they spent on the ring was for the sole purpose of transferring from Pelican to Pelican. The radios stated that UNSC forces were well on their way to establishing a command center in one of the many abandoned ruins that dotted the landscape. By the time word of this got out, Six and Bailey had already set out on a rescue mission.

The target was one of the smaller vessels in the Covenant pursuit fleet, the Truth and Reconciliation. Their pilot brought them and a small supporting force of marines through a gap in Covenant defenses.

This Pelican was only one portion of a multi-pronged assault on the crippled alien vessel. From their new HQ, the UNSC coordinated the attack from all sides. Commander Bailey had wanted to throw some ODST's out of modified Longswords in an effort to break through the roof of the ship. Command overruled her near-suicidal battle tactics.

"Thirty seconds!" The crew in the cockpit announced. The marines, decked out in specialized CQB and emergency vacuum equipment, got prepped for the battle that no doubt awaited the second they boarded the ship.

The Pelican flew up alongside one of the Truth and Reconciliation's starboard hangars. The shields deactivated to greet them, no doubt the result of a fire team already in the ship. The pilot maneuvered the Pelican so that it skirted the ceiling and gave the boarding party a clear shot at the third floor balcony.

Six was the first to leap out of the Pelican, followed shortly thereafter by Yuri Bailey. Their marine cohorts just barely cleared the gap, weighed down by their heavy combat gear.

Everyone on this floor was dead, human and Covenant alike. An Elite's multihued blue blood covered a nearby weapon's rack.

"Marines, turn on your VISR settings." Yuri ordered. "I don't want to get mauled on the way out by any grunts that were smart enough to play dead when our supporting team ran through here.

"Ma'am, we have movement." Dom said.

Along the balcony, behind a stack of busted Covenant plasma recharging stations, a flashlight blinked with a pattern that could only be intentional.

"Seems like it is saying… all you, you're all clear and free." their marine sergeant said.

"Close," Bailey said. "You all can come on out. We're clear, here."

The pattern stopped. A second, smaller boarding party emerged from behind the makeshift barricade. Commander Bailey ordered her group to move forward, setting the two groups to collide at a nearby intersection.

"I hear you two have previously met." Bailey said. Spartan B-312 and Spartan 117 nodded at the commander. They eyed each other from behind their helmets, but made no verbal acknowledgement of each other.

The lone Spartan-II was joined by three other marines dressed in standard UNSC marine battle dress. They looked worse for wear, having fought long and hard from the ship's central gravity lift up to the third floor of this hangar bay.

"Have any of you ever been in a Covenant ship before?" Bailey asked the group as a whole.

"Yes, ma'am." Six and the Master Chief said in unison. Their experience was not shared by any of the marines.

"You two get point." Yuri ordered. "CQC units will follow right behind us. Standard marines will be follow behind and guard our backs."

"The door is right over there." this new voice emanated right out of the Master Chief's suit. It was Cortana, freshly evacuated from the Pillar of Autumn.

The unit pushed on through the halls, taking out the odd wayward grunt unlucky enough to get in their way. Their rampage lasted unchecked until they reached another door. Dom had been briefed on this part of the operation in the Pelican. They were to raid the bridge of the ToR, nested deep in the hull where no MAC round could possibly penetrate.

"On three." Yuri said. "two… go!"

Spartan 117 kicked the door, triggering its motion sensors and causing it to swing upwards and open. Six and the Chief ran into the room and opened fire with their shotgun and assault rifle, respectively. Yuri followed through with SMG fire from the rear.

Grunts and Jackals hardly remembered dying. Elites had their shields ruptured before the CQC contingent even entered the room. The carnage lasted until the Spartans had to reload. John switched to his pistol while Dom sacrificed his shotgun to deflect an energy sword courtesy of the ship's gold-clad captain, an Elite grizzled with age and combat experience.

Six tackled the captain and kicked one last Elite onto its knees. Yuri finished off this second alien with a final burst of SMG fire.

B312 pulled his combat knife out of its sheath and tried ramming it down the captain's gullet. The Elite blocked, causing the knife to become jammed in the alien's massive hand. The captain reared back and kicked Noble Six into a bridge-side ditch.

The gold Elite was not done yet; he activated yet another energy sword. A member of the CQB tried lobbing a grenade at him. The captain front-flipped out of the blast radius and impaled the marine against the wall before he even had time to get out a shotgun blast. This would be the alien's undoing, as it put the Master Chief behind him.

Six's combat knife had slid off across the slick purple floor, too far away to be off any use. He still had Emile's kukri, a parting gift from a dying friend. With all his might, Dom gripped this knife by the handle and threw it towards the Master Chief. John caught it in mid-throw and disemboweled the Elite Ship Master.

"Six, Chief, get to the brig!" Yuri Bailey said. "I'm going to stay here with the marines, see if I can't work with these consoles here, and maybe find something of interest."

The two Spartans sprinted from the relatively spacious bridge back into the narrow confines off the interior corridors. They cleared out one set of holding cells to no avail. The second chamber contained their target and a small contingent of captured Autumn personnel.

"This is reckless. You two know better than this! Still, thank you." such was their greeting from Captain Keyes.

"We didn't come alone, sir." Six said.

"It's an organized assault." John added.

"I see," Keyes grabbed a Needler out of the hands of a dead Grunt. "A full debriefing can wait. Everyone, push to the hangars!"

The Covenant had yet to put up an organized counterassault since the death of their commander. In fact, many of the doors leading into the prison ward were locked. This created a clear avenue back to the bridge.

"Commander Bailey, are you locking the Covenant out of our escape route?" Cortana asked over the comms.

"Maybe," Bailey said playfully. "Hurry up and get back here, we can't wait all day."

The Spartans entered the bridge to find a pair of dead Elites, energy swords broken by their auto-destruct failsafe. One of the standard marines stood over the far corpse, kicking it.

"They snuck up on us!" the squad's sergeant said. "If the commander hadn't ordered us to activate VISR, we would've have seen through their active camo."

"You can thank me later, push to the hangar. I've got the route locked down."

Yuri went on to inform the rescue team that she sent half the CQC squad back to secure their escape route. They were still arrived when the main posse reached the hangar, but their getaway vehicles were nowhere to be found.

"Analyzing," Cortana said. "Foe Hammer is locked out of the sector by enemy air forces. The commander's bird was taken out mere minutes after it left the hangar."

The marines began to panic. It was all flurry of "we're screwed"s and "game over, man!"s.

"Everyone shut up! We'll press to the grav lift and make our way to Alpha Base on foot!" Bailey said.

"We won't make the first mile." Keyes nodded towards a dormant Covenant Spirit dropship. "I'll take us out of here myself."

* * *

There we go. Not so hard once I section off some time to write.

I actually moved part of the "AC" plot over to the next chapter. That way I can have a scene at the UNSC Alpha-Halo command base as seen in the novelization. When next we meet: Alpha Base.


	6. Chapter 6

I'm still alive! It's been months, but I'm not dead!

I have a good excuse, honest! You can read up on that later. Without further ado….

* * *

The primary heart of UNSC resistance on Halo was known as Alpha Base. It was an occupied preexisting structure on a desert mesa far downspin from the nearest Covenant force. It had been taken from a small Covenant garrison while the two Spartans were just setting foot on the ringworld.

If they simply had the will to do it, The Covenant could have glassed the structure off the ring. No capital ships ever appeared over the base. Cortana claimed they had a taboo against defiling the object. It was, perhaps, part of their religious rites Captain Keyes had mentioned on the flight over. Halo was of deep importance to the alien conglomerate.

A resistance was forming. With the Captain and several other ranking naval and marine officers alive and organized at Alpha Base, the remnants from the Pillar of Autumn could begin to plan strategies for the next months on the ring. They could hold out a year if the occasion called for it. With all humanities' defenses swept aside, Dom seriously doubted Earth would last the year.

The resistance had three objectives. Finding a way off the ring and back to Earth in time to aid in its defense was the ultimate goal. That alone would just delay death. They'd need to use the adoration their enemies had for this construct to their advantage. Halo was a weapon of some sort. If it could be used against The Covenant, perhaps the damage would be heinous enough to sue for peace. Six had been the first to suggest destroying the ring. If it had the significance Keyes claimed it did such an act could break The Covenant's will entirely.

Sitting on the roof to Alpha Base looking upspin, Noble Six had to admit the task seemed impossible. Cortana calculated the diameter in at roughly equal to Earth's. Even so, the structure had to have weak points. Throwing one nuclear football down a key chasm could be all it takes to get a chain reaction going down the ring.

The last Spartans had remained at Alpha Base for days following the rescue of the Captain. The Master Chief was walking around without his armor. Six considered doing the same, but ultimately decided against it. All it took was one rouge sniper.

John looked considerably similar to Jorge, the biggest unique feature being graying red hair instead of graying brown. Six almost considered asking the Chief if he knew Jorge. It was unlikely, though. Just as Six had gone years without seeing any other members of his S-III beta company aside from Noble Team, so had many of the Spartan-IIs been sent on far-flung missions, never seeing another Spartan outside of their small personal teams.

Six was supervising the base ground defenses. He was currently observing marines undergo the day-long task of digging a hole large enough to bury a tank up to its turret.

A green ball of hard light materialized on an alien pedestal to Dom's left. This was not Cortana, but rather another AI from the Autumn, one imbedded with the local ODSTs. He appeared as an older man dressed in an ancient European style.

"Bailey would like to see you, sir. She'll be in our makeshift hydroponics lab." the AI said.

"Very well."

Six had not seen the ONI spook or Cortana for days, now. The survivors were so few in number that going more than a few hours without seeing someone was quite odd. Dom-312 set off for the hydroponics lab. It was not until he got there that he discovered John-117 had been summoned there as well.

* * *

Yeah, smaller chapters. I can get used to this.

Okay, I'll spill the beans. There were two reasons why I was delayed so:

I had to retrieve my copy of Halo: The Flood to brush up on a few things (the AI is called Wellsley, for instance.)

More importantly: I got halfway done, then 3/4ths of the way done, then finished, then began editing, my own original work in my own, original universe. 400+ pages can be awfully time consuming.

I should have more time to finish this up now. With my insomnia mounting, it's a near certainty. Let's see how far down this Alternate Continuum rabbit hole we can go….


	7. Chapter 7

This and the previous chapter were going to be one big superchapter. I split 'em up for time.

Stay tuned after the chap for an FAQ session

* * *

There was no telling how long they'd be on Halo. Bailey had commissioned a miniature laboratory with which to grow food for an extended stay. The Autumn hadn't rescued many plants from Reach, so in the short term they were stuck with MREs. Patrols were ordered to be on the lookout for any edible fruits naturally growing on the ring. Commander Bailey had an ever-growing collection of nontoxic specimens in the hydroponics lab.

When the Master Chief and Noble Six entered the lab, Bailey had something else set up in hydroponics. It was a portable table, designed for the dismantling of AIs.

"Master Chief, if you would kindly give me Cortana." Yuri's hand was waving about expectantly.

"I don't like the sound of this." Cortana said through the Mjollnir's speakers.

"For what purpose is this?" Six asked.

"You'll see. It will benefit you both, I assure you. Cortana, it's not going to hurt one bit."

They were in no position to refuse. Bailey could just as easily order them to hand her over. Sparatan-117 unplugged his AI helper and gave her to the Commander.

"Modifications will take a few hours. Reconvene before the next security report. You're dismissed."

Six made a point of stopping the Master Chief on their way out of the lab. They found a place out of the way.

"What is your opinion of Commander Bailey?" Dom asked.

"I have none, sir."

Spartan B-312 was always known for being inquisitive. It aided him well on dozens of lone wolf missions. If they were to survive this mission, Six would need to his every last reserve of curiosity to make it off this ring alive. They couldn't exactly tolerate any weak links, any ONI spooks with suspicious motives.

Right about now, Six was thinking about organizing an operation to take them back to the Pillar of Autumn. There, he would search through the ship's database for any information on this Yuri Bailey, see just what her orders from ONI are.

Six stayed silent about this plan for now. The two Spartans reconvened in hydroponics after Yuri had completed her work.

Bailey had two chips waiting for them. She urged them both to plug the chips into their suits.

"Hey! I can see both your vitals!" Cortana said. Six got the impression the Chief was hearing the same thing.

"I spliced her up." Bailey said.

"So she can exist in both our systems." 117 said.

"In short ranges, yes. It'll double her situational analysis and triple your combat effectiveness as a team. In long ranges, well, we'll get to that when we come to it. I've got word on our next mission. It's a massive deployment using a full 60% of our forces."

Six addressed Cortana. "Are you okay."

"I suppose. If I still had a body, I'd be itching all over."

Cortana briefed them on the operation. They were to find the control room of this ringworld. It was here that any weapons systems the installation was hiding could be found and used. Even the captain was to take part in ground operations, seeking out a weapons cache far from the main front. They were to leave as soon as possible.

Bailey was apparently coming with them. She organized two Pelicans for the main assault while Cortana organized additional reinforcements to back up the main assault.

Dom and the commander entered one pelican while the Chief entered the other. There was a fair gap between the craft while in flight, but it was not enough to trigger these long-distance systems Bailey had talked about.

Six turned to Bailey. "You said something about increasing our effectiveness as a team." "Yep," Bailey sat in her chair, smiling. "I liked your work on the Reconciliation. The captain has signed off on my proposal, so we're reformatting you two into D-one and D-two of Durandal Team. I thought the name up myself."

Cortana chimed in with her two cents. "If it means anything, you'll always be Noble Six to me."

Six manually shut off all audio systems on the suit. Dom could talk to Cortana and Cortana alone.

"What does the Master Chief think of this?"

"I've already filled him in. He'll always be Sierra 117 to me, too. Hopefully this is just a temporary reassignment. I mean, the Chief's still got his old squad MIA – really MIA, I mean."

Six told Cortana about the suspicions regarding Commander Bailey. With Captain Keyes away from Alpha Base and well-known hardass Major Silva the sole ranking officer remaining to coordinate any operations, it was doubtful that Six would get the chance to probe the Autumn's computer systems anytime soon, not with the crash site occupied by the second-largest concentration of Covenant forces on the ring.

* * *

Whew! My computer died on me last night. Wasn't sure if I'd be getting this chapter back.

Without further ado, I present to you a collection answers to frequently asked questions and comments I get in reviews.

One: Dominura being the name for FemSix was actually a veiled and gratuitous reference to Simoun. Dominique is the proper distaff counterpart for Dominic. You guys can call him/her whatever you want. I was really just going for the Gears reference. Were it not for that, I'd call 'im Bob. Or maybe Herbert.

Two: Captain Keyes lasts until about the midpoint of the game. Of course, that was in another timeline. Things _could_ change ever so slightly. /hinthinthint. That's not to say they could change for the better – he could go out in a more grizzly fashion! Ah, the joys of AU.

Three: Dom's armor is not described for much the same reason why I shy away from calling the S-III a he or her. I wear white-and-blue with base Recon and Mk 5 shoulders, but that's just me.

Four: Yeah, I totally wrote a book of my own. Nearly five hundred pages of original universe. It is, as of yet unpublished and in dire need of revisions, so there's not much to talk about just yet, save that Bailey is a partial expy of a Colonel, oh, let's call her Jill from The Book What Not Be Named Yet. In the event that I do get published, I'll drop a totally unsubtle hint as to the plot of this project.


	8. Chapter 8

Noble Six bolted down the hallway. The sleek, angular buttresses and causeways so common to Forerunner architecture could hide enemies around any corner.

The Spartan had cleared out this hallway on the way in, engaging a pair of Hunters and some Grunt escorts with naught but a pistol. It was easier than it sounded. Only the S-III walked out of the encounter alive.

This was not to say the hallway was guaranteed to remain secure. Sure enough, Six found a pair of cloaked elite assassins ready for an ambush.

Stealth systems on an Elite's battle harness seemed to work differently than ONI's own systems. The Covenant seemed to run cloaks off of the same power source as their energy shielding. With this in mind, dispatching the Elites was an easy affair.

The assault on the Silent Cartographer was a joint operation. As such, Noble Six and the Master Chief were split up to maximize their effectiveness. The Covenant had locked a security door leading to their primary objective. Six had volunteered to lone wolf it out to a security override switch. The Master Chief stayed behind at the main site, ready to strike just as soon as the doors were open.

The island was at most two kilometers across and shaped like a race course; this was not enough o trigger Bailey's touted "upgrades" to Cortana.

Cortana hummed in Six's head. There was no way of knowing whether the Chief was hearing this as well. Six welcomed the next Mjollnir service overhaul.

"I'm going over some of the data I pulled from the security override. We opened a lot of locked doors, and not all on this island. I hope it doesn't come back to bit us."

"Are you expecting something?" Six asked.

"Oh, no. Pardon my pensiveness. Having two separate sets of inputs to process is… interesting. It's like being plugged into a starship but more… I don't know, limited. Anyhow, the Master Chief is halfway to the Cartographer already. Just as planned."

_But wait, it gets worse!_

"Mayday! Mayday! Dropship Bravo 22 taking enemy fire! Repeat, we are under hea-" Static blocked the communication.

"This is your local commander, Yuri Bailey. Three banshees are tailing you. Hold 'em still."

Six hit the surface. There was no sign of a dogfight amidst the serene island landscape. The super-soldier retreated to the realm of thoughts.

"What is Dropship B-22 carrying?" Dom asked.

"Heavy weapons and CQC. I requested them for the Chief's leg of the op once you encountered hunters over here. They should have dropped their equipment off and carried onward but…" Cortana's voice trailed off. Six asked her what was wrong.

"Well, Yuri requested a special package for you. They're probably in route to our location right now.

The Pelican cleared a forerunner slab that was hanging out over the beach. Behind it was only one Banshee, badly damaged and burning. A salvo of missiles hit the banshee, and it exploded.

The savior of Bravo B-22 was a Hornet. Hornets were small-nimble craft – like miniature Falcons. The odd thing was they were only rated for atmosphere. Even if there was a squadron of Hornets assigned to the Pillar of Autumn, they would have only been recoverable during that supply raid by the ODSTs a day back.

Yuri was in the left-facing rumble seat. She ordered the pilot to land on a ledge near Six's location.

"… so it turns out there was a freak misallocation of resources. The Autumn got outfitted with some of the best in-atmosphere weaponry the Oonsk could afford. We'll have all our enemies on the run within the week!"

Six nodded. This was, perhaps, a simple accident in the paperwork back on Reach. Still, it no doubt got many more people killed in the space battle above this Halo. Six wasn't in much of a position to complain.

Yuri looked at Six. "D-1, hop on. We'll get you to the Cartographer in no time."

"Chief, keep moving!"

Just three minutes ago, the topside team of thirty-plus marines reported an attack by one of the larger Covenant forces in the region. They vowed to hold out for as long as possible.

Cortana assured him Six was still fighting. Were the rest still alive? If so, they had allowed a group of Covenant to break past them and enter the Cartographer compound.

The last group of Grunts was dead. The Master Chief rushed up the last ramp, through the deserted atrium, and into the light.

Seventeen of the original marine contingent remained. They were assisted by two Pelicans, three hornets, Noble Six, and Yuri Bailey.

The peaceful beachhead had been scorched black with rocket and plasma fire. Amidst the bodies was a pair of Hunters, eight Jackals, countless Grunts, and a Gold-plated Elite Field Marshall with his Oonossa bodyguards.

"It was amazing! You should have seen it, Master Chief!" one of the younger marines said. "That was the largest force I've seen since Reach. Nobody could've seen it coming. It was a miracle we survived."

Noble Six and Bailey were sitting on a pair of overturned Covenant recharge crates. Six looked over at Bailey suspiciously.

"What is it, D-1?"

"How did you know?"

"Whatever do you mean? I knew when you did. Of course, I had my suspicions."

"_How?_" Six leaned towards her. With the suit on, a Spartan never needed to _try_ to intimidate.

Yuri shrugged. "There are many things we do not know, and never will. Now, for our debriefing…"

Through the Master Chief, Cortana had discovered the location of Halos central control room. It seemed obvious that they should head for it as soon as possible. Still, it was a global conflict. Two Spartans could save a lot of lives, especially when they split up.

"I hear the Captain has dropped out of contact." Yuri said. "Now, I'm no fan of that fellow next up on the command roster. D-1, let's go after the Captain and get him back in the chain of command. D-2, you and Foe Hammer go find this Control Room. With Cortana with the both of you the operations should be elementary."

Six and the Master Chief boarded separate Pelicans, with Yuri stepping aboard Six's Pelican. Cortana had the ingenious idea to insert the Chief through Halos many underground tunnels. Six and Yuri were shuttled off the island and over the sea.

Soon, Cortana's much-touted upgrades would take effect.


	9. Chapter 9

Weekly installments! Whatever will people say?

* * *

Cortana had lost track of her other half after the Master Chief and Noble Six went their separate ways.

For now, she could only assume that the same was true on the other end; that Six's own personal smart AI was operating as normal. Having branched off, they were technically unique individuals now. What would happen when the Spartans (hopefully) had a reunion, only Yuri knew.

Cortana took a few femtoseconds to ponder these thoughts as Spartan 117 forcefully tore her holding unit out of his Mjollnir armor and into the ancient Forerunner console. This was it: the Control Room, their goal in these opening expeditions on Halo.

It took moments to interface with the alien technology. No records existed of this ever being attempted before. Even so, Cortana felt oddly nostalgic.

Then, she saw everything. Views of a hundred thousand individual sentry drones rushed to her, causing a slight delay in her thought processes. Most were dormant. A small fraction (5.4477%) were active and engaged in battle, most likely with the Covenant. Unless…

There was a conversation back in the Control Room. The Spartan got right to the point, wanted to know how to use the installation to destroy the Covenant. Keyes and the Covenant were both wrong. It was not a weapon, not _just _a weapon. It had been many things, in its original design. Its current offensive capabilities were the result of…

Cortana could multitask; came with being an AI. She came to two revelations at once, off the ball for the trillions of thoughts she could juggle at any given time. One: Halo's built-in sentries were not fighting the Covenant. Two: Captain Keyes was in terrible, terrible danger. Six and Yuri were going to walk right to their deaths in an attempt to rendezvous with him.

"Chief, you need to get moving. Find them!"

John wanted an explanation. There was no time. It may have already been too late.

He'd need to get to Six. Get to Cortana's other half. She could handle the strategy and maybe even salvage this disaster

Cortana spent several moments probing Halo for information. There was so much. She wouldn't be able to take it all with her. Her queries lasted mere seconds in the physical world, long enough for some humans in the control room to become disgruntled.

Yuri had left them behind at the Cartographer. That site no longer had any value. They would've been fodder when the Covenant arrived in force. Cortana and the Chief had brought the group with them to the Control Room, an area that actually needed defense.

"Ma'am, what should we do?"

There were thirty of them in total, having marched with the S-II through the snowy crags surrounding Halos nerve center. Cortana asked for the man in charge, a man named Stacker, and told the squads to lie low. The interior of this structure was perfectly defensible. No need to draw the ire of the Covenant down upon them by making their presence known.

If the data Cortana was thumbing through was right, the Covenant would be far too busy to try and retake this region.

* * *

I really wanted to do a chapter all on Cortana. Also, I needed some buffer between Six disappearing and the big return.

The ripples are starting to take hold. Things are changing. Also, femtoseconds. I think they're shorter than nanoseconds.


	10. Chapter 10

Do you mind if I split this chapter up, audience? I'll get you part 2 in mere days, that's a promise. It has to do with pacing and stuff.

May 1st. That's a big date in my current schedule. I'll be submitting something original to somebody then. It's kind of all hands on deck, 'round here.

* * *

"Foe Hammer, Noble Six, and the Commander landed in this location three hours ago, Master Chief. Foe Hammer is still flying sorties, but the Commander and Six have dropped out of contact, just like the Captain."

The Master Chief stared out the back hatch of a Pelican overlooking a damp and swampy landscape. Alien plants grew in bunches near cliff, and the low-lying areas were flooded. There were no signs of human or the Covenant, save for some Covie supplies and explosive residue still lingering about the air.

A gaping maw drew his full attention. It was built into one of the many artificial caverns that seemed so common on this ring. Covenant shielding and turrets were gathered in a circle around this cavern. Some were facing towards the maw, some were facing away.

John lingered on the ramp for a moment. He took the opportunity to notice how the average marines continued to call him the Master Chief; continued to call the other Spartan Noble Six. Yuri's Durandal team moniker was not catching on. The Chief jumped. His armored boots sunk deep into the marsh.

From the ground, the Spartan ordered his Pelican escort to return to Alpha Base. They'd been losing too many transports to risk putting another one at risk.

It was into the cavern and down an elevator. It was not until then that he began to suspect fowl-play.

There were plenty of signs of a firefight, but no bodies to speak of. Entire rooms were smeared multicolor with Covenant blood. The most the S-II ever found in the way of a corpse was a partially chewed-on Jackal.

Worse still, the battles seemed to overlap. There was evidence of the UNSC fighting to get deeper into the structure, and evidence of others trying to fight back up. Still no bodies, though; the bullet trails would stop at an obvious last stand, but it was as if the corpses themselves had been picked up and dragged away.

By the time the Chief reached empty containment chambers, his suit-mounted flashlights couldn't recharge fast enough. He really wished he'd requested the VISR app.

There was nobody here. There were no signs of Six; no signs of Yuri; certainly no signs of the captain. He was trapped in this labyrinthine compound with nothing to oppose him. For once, he wished he had hordes of Covenant to fight. It might break the tension.

* * *

Chapter 11 up by Friday.


	11. Chapter 11

The Master Chief caught a break in a fork-shaped through passageway between two laboratories.

He hung right, which brought him by a half-open, jammed doorway leading into a service closet. There were a dozen such side passageways down here, all of them abandoned.

The Chief walked past this particular door without paying it any heed. When the door swung open, he turned around and brought his loaded shotgun to bear in one swift motion.

"Hold your fire!" a very young, very scared-looking marine stood in the doorway, bracing the three sections of the porthole apart with his

"Who is it, son?" the marine was not alone.

"It's okay, he's one of ours. In fact, it's a Spartan! I almost thought nobody would ever make it down this far. We might just make it through this."

A group of marines had survived down here. They had a short argument before electing to bring the Chief into their hideout. There was a disturbance from down the hall. John decided that the exposed hallway may not be the best place to be.

There were five marines huddling in the dead-end passage. They were all in states of extreme duress. Covenant blood filled the room, evidence of a previous standoff. Still, there were no Covenant bodies. Given the sheer volume of blood it seemed unlikely that this small squad could have dislodged the aliens from this position.

The leader of these marines was an aging sergeant. He had a signature pack of touch-and-light cigars tucked into an ammo bandolier full of shotgun shells. His graying hair was partially masked by a billed cap.

"Well if it isn't you again, Master Chief."

"Hello, Staff Sergeant."

S-117 remembered Staff Sergeant Johnson from a brief stint aboard the Reach Station Gamma. The Master Chief had rescued him and his squad during a search and destroy operation. John was the very reason why this man even survived long enough to board the Autumn.

The other marines did not look familiar.

"Where is your squad, Staff Sergeant?"

"Dead, probably. Or worse. Tell me you encountered those things on the way down here."

"Tell him about the zombies, man!"

This last outburst came from a naval technician in the corner. His bright-orange jumpsuit was stained with sweat and blood.

The young marine responsible for first greeting the Chief went to shut this technician up. The Master Chief told Johnson that he hadn't encountered a soul on his journey into the labs before asking for more information.

"I was with the Captain with the first squad down here. We were attacked by, well, I'm not quite sure. I was the only one out of Fireteam Charlie to make it out alive. That was near twelve hours ago. The rest of us are remnants of other deployments sent down here for rescue. Well, all of them except…"

"Don't listen to him, sir! He's one of them!"

The young marine reached out and beat the techie over the head. "That's enough, Henry."

"You all saw it! He was covered in those things when we found him!"

"He hasn't showed any signs of turning, dude. I'm sure he's safe." The young marine turned to John. "I apologize, Master Chief. We're up against some kind of Covie bioweapon, I'd say. It… does a number on the sanity."

"It's not a bioweapon! Its zombies, man!"

Johnson brought his shotgun to bear. "Whatever you call 'em, they go down with a twelve gage to the chest. I'd describe 'em to you, but you'll know them when you see 'um."

"Sergeant, I'm looking for another Spartan, a younger model, callsign Dom-B312. Have you seen him?"

Sergeant Johnson scratched the stubble on his chin. "Another Spartan? Nonstandard armor? Yeah, we've seen him. He's the one that collected the lot of us, saved most of the young ones. Your friend drug old Henry in here screaming and howling."

"Where is he? Did he have an ONI Commander with him?"

"As a matter of fact, there was this woman in the flanks, at first. Now, I've known my share of ONI spooks, but she was a breed apart. Anyhow, Dom went up to find some help and hasn't been seen since. I don't know where the Commander went."

There was an awful clanking sound, like water flowing through pipes. Two marines moved to a grating in the center of the room.

"There's something in the ventilation shafts. Sarge, if we want to make a break for it, we should do it now!"

There was one last task that needed to be performed. Johnson brought the Chief aside as the marines pointed guns at every entrance into the room.

Johnson reached beneath his cigar pouch and produced a familiar-looking AI dock no bigger than a human thumb.

"The Dom fellow left this with me; told me to hold out here until somebody with the tech to interface with it came to rescue us. Well, here you are."

It was Cortana. Not the Cortana he had left in Halo's Control Room, but Noble Six's Cortana. This just may have been the ace the Chief and these marines needed to escape this facility.

More noise. There was no time to think. The last Spartan-II plugged Cortana into his neck-mounted starship-caliber AI slot.

* * *

... Yet another possibility of the continuum shift.


	12. Chapter 12

I've been in a writing funk ever since sending that package out. With my summer writing project pushed back to November, I'll focus on H:AC only for the time being.

* * *

"Rebooting." Cortana's automated response came in over the Chief's internal comm network. It would be awhile before she was properly interfaced with the suit to a degree where she would be ready to communicate.

"Okay, marines. We are leaving. The Chief and I'll take the front. You all watch our backs. Stick to CQC whenever possible. Make a beeline for the walls in the open sections; it'll keep us from being flanked."

The Spartan and sergeant met at the door. Johnson had a pair of shotguns in hand. He threw one to the Chief.

"If you run out of ammo, I suggest just dropping it and picking another as we go. We could probably survive in an extended fight. Our support…" Johnson looked back at the handful of marines in the service corridor.

"There's no way I'm going back out there!" Henry the technician was still glued to the far wall. The youngest marine in the bunch was still trying to get him up and moving.

"Damnit, Henry! How did you even survive Reach?"

Sergeant Johnson got the door open. The Master Chief peeked outside. The immediate hallways were empty; just how he'd left it. The Mjollnir armor's motion trackers revealed that there was movement in both adjacent laboratories, as well as the service corridors immediately above and below their position. The pips indicating movement were off-white – an unknown quantity. The room to their left was showing less in the way of movement. Johnson chose to lead the group that way.

The marines filed out in a timely manner as John protected their right flank. The young marine was the last to leave.

Both the marine and S-117 turned around to see Henry still huddled in a ball against the wall.

"Last chance, man!" Get up or we're going to leave you here."

The marine took one step back into the room. John stopped him. Something was not quite right.

There was a gurgle and a whimper from Henry's end. A series of three menacing tentacles burst through his torso. Bones cracked as still more mutations broke out all throughout the technician's body.

John had a shotgun. The marine had an assault rifle. Between the two a volley was unleashed that left the far wall covered in red blood and a sickly green paste.

"What was that?" the Chief began.

A grating in the center of the room broke open. Out poured a dozen knee-high creatures. Another lightning-quick shotgun blast caused these creatures to explode in a chain reaction that carried on down the ventilation shaft and bought the pair several precious seconds. The young marine hacked the door closed and they left posthaste.

The Master Chief hit the deformed corpse of a Covenant Elite with the butt end of his shotgun. The monster fell backwards off a ledge the group was currently shooting its way across. A shotgun shell evaporated the creature's midsection.

"Whoa!" Cortana said. "Whose suit is this? Is it the Chief? What did I miss?"

"Pleasure of you to stop in." John said. The sarcasm was cathartic. "I need all the information you can provide on this Covenant bioweapon."

"Bioweapon? That's what Dom thought. I'm not so sure…"

Sergeant Johnson alerted the Spartan to a pack that had vaulted up from the floor bellow. These subjects were undeniably human, or had been at one time. With three rounds left in his shotgun, he'd have to wait until they closed the distance before engaging.

"They're not Covenant? Then what are they?"

"I don't know!" Cortana said. "I'd need access to the Covenant Battlenet, or Halo's Control Room. Suffice to say, they're hostile to whatever moves and viral in nature."

"Where's Six?" the Chief asked, having just punched the parasitic midsection out of an attacking creature."

"Dom left to find a way to the surface just before yanking me out. What have you been up to?"

"I plugged you into the Control Room," John paused. He had forgotten that he'd been interacting with another Cortana. "I came here to find and extract Captain Keyes."

"Johnson was with the Captain's escort. I'm pretty sure he's been captured by the enemy."

The Master Chief wanted to ask Cortana which enemy had Keyes. There was no time, as another horde awaited in the next tunnel.

He didn't even notice a creature digging into his left shoulder pad until they reached the elevator to travel to the surface. It was round and balloon-like with three tentacles shaped like pitchforks. The suit was protecting the Spartan from whatever the blob was trying to accomplish.

The Sergeant grabbed the infector form and ripped it out of the suit. With a firm crushing motion, the creature exploded.

"I wish we could all have those fancy suits."

"Funny, Sarge. From what I heard, you didn't exactly need one."

The young marine, Johnson, and the Chief were the only three humans alive in the elevator room.

"Where's the rest of the group, Private?" S-117 asked.

"I saw two of 'em get eaten. Some of us may have gotten separated. We might not have the time to look."

Cortana alerted John to his motion tracker. A formless mass of movement was massing in the next room. She asked him kindly to press the button that would bring the elevator to the surface.

"Well, at least we're safe." Cortana said as the lift moved upward. "I think introductions are in order."

"The name's Roberto. Squaddies just called me Bob. You could say I was the platoon mascot. No good with a shotgun, prefer to steal those Covie energy weapons. You know, the ones you can charge up."

The Chief and Johnson required little reintroduction. They'd met before, briefly, on Reach Station Gamma. On the way topside, they planned their battle strategy.

Cortana still had no leads on the Six or Yuri's location and no clue about the mystery threat. The easiest way to get answers would be to regroup with the Cortana back in the control room. With access to the documents of the entire Halo construct, she quite possibly had eyes in every section of the station.

* * *

Bob. I'm saving him for a one-off Marathon gag.


	13. Chapter 13

I prefer to keep fanfiction chapters around 1,000 words or less.

It works in my favor for this chapter, as there is a great deal of dialog relative to other chapters. Must be Pirates 4 bleeding into my prose.

* * *

The Flood was coming in waves. When Noble Six's heavy boot hit the floor, the horde emerged from every crevasse. The attacks only stopped as the Spartan stepped aboard the elevators to ascend from each floor.

"Hurry, Reclaimer. Two floors yet remain."

Then there was this ancient keeper, Guilty Spark, a creature tasked with maintenance and defense of this installation. Well into highly advanced rampancy and obsessed with protocol, Six did not trust it.

"Excuse me," Six called out to Spark.

343 Guilty Spark was an AI contained in a small floating sphere with a single blue eye. It hovered around the Spartan's eye level as he spoke.

"What is it, Reclaimer? Be cautious! This elevator will complete its circuit within thirty seconds."

"This object you're asking me to… reclaim. What is it?"

"Were you not briefed? The index is the key governing the primary weapons systems for this entire installation! Tactical options are rapidly diminishing. If we delay too long not even this installation's primary weapon will not be sufficient."

Six nodded.

"The Flood is currently repairing your vessel and at least three interloper craft of starship classification. An unknown number of short range transport craft are being repurposed."

Talking to Spark proved to be counterproductive. It was only worth it if you were willing to sit through a dozen lectures of questionable relevance. Six decided to shut up and let the machine talk, though Spark's motives were yet unknown.

"… your species' lack of knowledge on Halo array protocols are most curious. If there is time, we will have to investigate the existence and propagation of Reclaimer geas."

Spark had a teleportation network that seemed to reach throughout the ring. This was how Six had been taken away from that infernal swamp and transported to a mazelike containment structure. With the Index in hand, Spark brought Six to the Control Room, center of all operations on this Halo array.

The chamber was empty. Curious, as crew from the Autumn should have secured this area long ago.

Guilty Spark presented the Index, materializing it in a puff of static electricity and ozone. The index was a metallic green and about as long as Six's arm. The Spartan grabbed it before it floated to the ground.

The AI informed Six that placing the Index and activating Halo was a task delegated to Reclaimers – Six supposed those were humans.

"Spark, what will Halo do? There are more… Reclaimers on this installation. I need to know that whatever we're about to do won't harm them."

Spark looked almost disappointed as it bobbed about in the air.

"Your hesitation is unexpected. If only there were time to run tests… Alas, the Flood is spreading. Your duty must be performed, and quickly."

There was no time. Before Six could walk the short distance over to the central control panel and insert the Index, the door began to open. Six was left in the open with naught but a shotgun and a half-drained plasma pistol for firepower.

A group of three, all human, entered the room. The Master Chief was instantly recognizable amongst their number.

"Oh, hello!" Spark said.

"Six," Chief said.

Noble Six knew of Sergeant Johnson from his stint with Commander Yuri Bailey in Halo's underground catacombs. No introductions were in order on that end. Explaining Guilty Spark's presence would require finesse.

"Six, where's Commander Bailey?" the Chief asked.

Dom-312 turned to the Sergeant. "She told me she'd stay with them."

"Well she told us she was going with you!" Johnson said. "What's that?"

Spark floated between the two groups of humans. "Hurry, Reclaimer. Time is of the essence."

"This thing wants me to activate Halo's weapon defense system to stop the Flood."

The Chief and his squad had no recognition of this word. Spark explained it as the parasitic infestation currently attacking all sides in the Halo conflict.

"Halo's weaponry is specially tuned to defeat the Flood. It must be activated soon, lest the Flood escape this installation to plague the galaxy once more."

The AI offered to provide a truly staggering list of specifications about the performance of this installation. It would do the humans no good, as it was all written in the dead language of Halo's long-gone builders.

"Let's do it." the Master Chief suggested. "After we're done with the Flood, we can turn it against the Covenant."

Johnson had a victory cigar out of his pack. "That might work, Chief. Still, what does it do? We might want to be sure before turning this ring on."

"I'm with the Sarge. Still, the fellow in the suit might disagree – might want to pull rank on us. Just sayin'."

_How incredibly perceptive._ The FNG must have had courses in body language of some sort. He'd managed to read the S-III's actions almost perfectly without seeing a single facial expression.

Noble Six was naturally curious. "Curiosity" was one of the few words in B-312's Spartan dossier that was not [REDACTED]. Spark's symptoms of high rampancy were troublesome. Six was not about to take his word for it on an issue of this caliber.

"We need to consult a Cortana or the Captain." Six declared.

"Right you are, Dom!" a pulsing-green gigantic avatar of Cortana appeared on the Control Room dashboard. "Here I was thinking I was going to have to come out and keep you all from committing unwitting suicide."

* * *

C-c-c-cliffhanger!


End file.
